Comedy1970–1977CBS

The Best Episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Every episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show!

Best episode
S6E7 Chuckles Bites the Dust
9.4588 votes
Worst episode
S4E7 Son of But Seriously Folks
6.4199 votes
Top season
Season 7
8.0avg
Binge time
3d 2h
168 episodes
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons7

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 6 Episode 7 - Chuckles Bites the Dust
    9.4/10(588 votes)

    S6:E7

    Chuckles the Clown is crushed to death by a rogue elephant in a parade, which leaves all the newsroom staff in hysterics except Mary.

    Director:Joan Darling
    Writer:David Lloyd

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  2. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 7 Episode 24 - The Last Show
    9.4/10(388 votes)

    S7:E24

    WJM-TV has some personnel changes in the executive department (again), and everyone except Ted Baxter is fired. The new station manager wants to see the WJM News the highest-ranked in Minneapolis, and for some reason feels that Ted can help him make it happen. (Seems a little odd, eh?) The gang says goodbye to each other in the form of a long, hard cry. Mary thanks them all for being her surrogate family, and Lou finally sentimentally says, ""I cherish you people."" They bravely march out the office doors singing, ""It's a long, long way to Tipperary."" At the last moment, Mary leans back through through the WJM-TV doors and turns out the light. So long, WJM-TV.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writers:David Lloyd, Stan Daniels, James L. Brooks, Allan Burns, Ed. Weinberger, Bob Ellison

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  3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 4 Episode 1 - The Lars Affair
    8.9/10(361 votes)

    S4:E1

    Phyllis finds out that Lars has been having an affair with Sue Ann Nivens, the star of WJM-TV's The Happy Homemaker show.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 3 Episode 23 - Put On a Happy Face
    8.9/10(320 votes)

    S3:E23

    Everything goes right for Rhoda and everything goes wrong for Mary on a disastrous day when she is due to go to the Teddies.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 4 Episode 10 - The Dinner Party
    8.8/10(319 votes)

    S4:E10

    Mary invites Congresswoman Geddes to a fancy dinner at her home, trying hard to ensure that everything is perfect.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 5 Episode 1 - Will Mary Richards Go to Jail?
    8.8/10(257 votes)

    S5:E1

    Mary refuses to reveal a news source for a story she produced and has to spend a night in jail.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

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  7. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 5 Episode 7 - A New Sue Ann
    8.7/10(243 votes)

    S5:E7

    A young fan, Gloria, persuades Sue Ann to hire her for The Happy Homemaker. Sue Ann is less than pleased when Gloria plays up to the station manager and gets a larger role on the show at the expense of her own.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:David Lloyd

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  8. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 5 Episode 23 - Ted Baxter's Famous Broadcasters' School
    8.7/10(238 votes)

    S5:E23

    A con-man tricks Ted into setting up a broadcasters' academy. When he finds out he's been had, he asks Lou, Mary and Murray to be the faculty and give the semester's opening lectures.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Michael Zinberg

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  9. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 4 Episode 20 - Better Late . . . That's a Pun . . . Than Never
    8.7/10(225 votes)

    S4:E20

    To relieve her boredom, Mary jokingly writes a humorous obituary of one of the people in the WJM-TV file. Coincidentally, the same person dies the following day and the obituary is read on the air. Lou has no choice but to suspend Mary, but she threatens to quit in response.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Treva Silverman

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  10. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 7 Episode 1 - Mary Midwife
    8.7/10(222 votes)

    S7:E1

    Georgette gives birth at Mary's dinner party. With the hospital and doctor too far away, Lou and Mary help deliver the baby.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:David Lloyd

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  11. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 6 Episode 18 - Once I Had a Secret Love
    8.7/10(211 votes)

    S6:E18

    Lou has spent the night with Sue Ann, and confides in Mary. Their friendship is almost ruined when Mary is unable to keep the secret.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 4 Episode 8 - Lou's First Date
    8.5/10(245 votes)

    S4:E8

    Lou gives Mary the task of finding him a date for an awards' ceremony. A name mix-up means that Lou winds up taking out an 80-year-old woman.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 7 Episode 3 - Sue Ann's Sister
    8.5/10(239 votes)

    S7:E3

    Sue Ann becomes deeply depressed when her sister arrives and gets an offer to do a competing homemaker show in Minneapolis.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:David Lloyd

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  14. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 6 Episode 9 - Ted's Wedding
    8.5/10(210 votes)

    S6:E9

    Out of pity for Ted, Mary invites him & Georgette over for brunch. While he as an onion ring in his mouth, he proposes to Georgette...again. When, for the first time, Georgette says no, she & Ted have a talk and decide they want to get married now. They invite all their friends: Lou, Murray (with mud on his sweatshirt from his son's football game), and Sue Ann (who, in a spectacularily comedic enterance, brings a veil, flowers, and rice, among several other things). Ted's mom can't make it (she's washing her hair), but the incompetent minister comes straight from his tennis match. Best man Lou helps Ted calm his wedding day jitters. When the minister asks Ted if he takes Georgette to be his lawfully wedded wife, he pauses for a moment. Finally, with a smile on his face, he says, ""I do."" When they are pronounced husband & wife, Sue Ann sings the wedding march...very poorly, of course. Once the wedding ends and Lou, Murray, & Sue Ann leave, Ted asks, as if nothing had happened,

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:David Lloyd

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  15. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 4 Episode 21 - Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite
    8.5/10(209 votes)

    S4:E21

    After a heavy self-promotion campaign, Ted wins his first Teddy Award. When Walter Cronkite comes to the newsroom, Ted assumes that he will be hired by the networks.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Ed. Weinberger

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  16. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 3 Episode 17 - My Brother's Keeper
    8.4/10(271 votes)

    S3:E17

    Phyllis wants to set up her visiting brother with Mary, but instead he hits it off with Rhoda and begins spending time with her to Phyllis's disapproval.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Dick Clair

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  17. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 3 Episode 6 - Rhoda the Beautiful
    8.4/10(255 votes)

    S3:E6

    After losing 20 pounds, Rhoda enters a beauty contest at work, but continues to put herself down.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Treva Silverman

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  18. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 5 Episode 9 - Not a Christmas Story
    8.4/10(246 votes)

    S5:E9

    The entire newsroom staff is arguing with each other, and when they are trapped at the office due to bad weather, Sue Ann decides to serve her Christmas dinner early.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 3 Episode 13 - Operation: Lou
    8.4/10(229 votes)

    S3:E13

    Lou goes to hospital to have a piece of World War II shrapnel removed and, surprisingly, he and Ted become best friends.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writers:Elias Davis, David Pollock

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  20. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 4 Episode 23 - Two Wrongs Don't Make a Writer
    8.4/10(213 votes)

    S4:E23

    Ted joins Mary at a night-school class in creative writing, and winds up plagiarizing her assignment.

    Director:Nancy Walker
    Writer:David Lloyd

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  21. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 7 Episode 17 - Sue Ann Gets the Ax
    8.4/10(199 votes)

    S7:E17

    Sue Ann's Happy Homemaker show is canceled but she is determined to stay at WJM and asks Mary to give her a job in the newsroom.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 7 Episode 11 - Mary's Insomnia
    8.4/10(193 votes)

    S7:E11

    Mary is having trouble sleeping and resorts to pills, which has Lou concerned that she's become addicted to them.

    Director:James Burrows
    Writer:David Lloyd

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  23. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 1 Episode 1 - Love is All Around
    8.3/10(605 votes)

    S1:E1

    The classic series begins its classic 7-year run in Mary's apartment. Mary Richards, a 30-year-old single woman, has left her long-time boyfriend, Bill, to be with her old friend, Phyllis Lindstrom, in Minneapolis. (Mary originally lived in Roseburg, MN.) Why did Mary leave Bill? After promising to her that he would marry her right after his internship at the hospital, he said, ""Why rush into things???"" Meanwhile, she's already having troubles with her new apartment--a bitter upstairs neightbor, Rhoda Morgenstern, insists that she owns Mary's apartment!

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:James L. Brooks

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  24. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 3 Episode 9 - Farmer Ted and the News
    8.3/10(238 votes)

    S3:E9

    Ted refuses to sign his contract renewal until Lou agrees to let him pursue other ventures, a decision he soon regrets when Ted begins appearing in commercials.

    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 7 Episode 14 - The Critic
    8.3/10(205 votes)

    S7:E14

    A pompous but renowned critic is hired to provoke controversy on The Six O'Clock News, but the newsroom thinks he has gone too far when he begins attacking Minneapolis and its residents.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:David Lloyd

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Best Episodes Summary

"Chuckles Bites the Dust" is the best rated episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It scored 9.4/10 from 588 votes. Directed by Joan Darling and written by David Lloyd, it aired on October 25, 1975.

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